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Question : What is pulse polio programme of Government of India? What is OPV? Why is it that India is yet to eradicate polio? |
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Answer» Solution :Pulse polio is an immunisationcampaignestablishedby the Government of India in 1995-96 to eradicatepoliomyelitis(polio) in India by vaccinatingall children under the age of five years orally against polio virus. This project deals with the ways to fight poliomyelitis through a large scale immunisation programme,co-operating with various international institutions, state governments and Non-Governmental Organisations. In 1995, following the polio eradication initiative of World Health Organisation (1988), India launched Pulse Polio ImmunisationProgram along with Universal ImmunisationProgram which aimed at 100% coverage. Having mate on unprecedented progress in polio eradication, India is now GEARING up to be declaredpolio free by 2014 by guardingitself against the import of polio virus from neighbouringcountriesand by boosting routine immunisation. Oral Polio Vaccine Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) is alive-attenuated vaccine, produced by the passage of the virus through non-human cells at asub-physiologicaltemperature, whichproduces spontaneousmutationsin the viral genome. OPV also proved to be superior in administration, , eliminatingthe need for sterile syringesand making the vaccine more suitablefor mass vaccination campaigns. OPV also provides long lasting immunity than the salk vaccine. One dose of OPV produces immunityto all three poliovirus serotypesin approximately 50%of recipients . India is yet to ERADICATE polio because inspite of many initiaves taken by government, few CASES has been reported. The last reported cases of polio in India was in West Bengal and Gujarat on 13 January 2011. Earlierthis year, the World Health Organisation(WHO) had removed India from the list of polio-endemiccountries. If no fresh case is reported TILL 2014, the country will be declaredpolio free. July 30, 2013 a nine-month old boy from Navi Mumbai has been found positive for Vaccine-DerivedPolio-Virus (VDPV) type 2 and was on ventilatorat BJ Wadia Hospital in Parel. This is the fourth such case recorded in the country that year. In India the main obstaclein the eradicationof polio had been the refusal of polio vaccine by certain communities on account of illiteracy and misinformation . |
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